By Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier & Press
INDIANAPOLIS - Two of Indiana's leading policymakers are scrambling to rescue legislation that would require schools to hold back third-graders who struggle to read.
But quibbles with a key lawmaker over the cost of the proposal remained unresolved Thursday.
Unexpectedly playing defense, Tony Bennett, Indiana superintendent of public instruction, told reporters that reading is such a central element of early education that schools should find ways to provide struggling students with extra assistance without spending more money.
Minutes later, Gov. Mitch Daniels agreed, telling reporters that the General Assembly's nonpartisan research arm misunderstood the bill and said it should cost nothing.
"Maybe they've overworked," he said of the Legislative Services Agency, which estimated it could cost up to $49 million for schools to fulfill remediation requirements laid out in the bill.
"The fiscal (impact) of that bill is zero dollars and zero cents."
But Luke Kenley, the Noblesville Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, hadn't heard from Daniels or Bennett and was not convinced the proposal would come without cost, even if original estimates are re-evaluated.
"I think it's going to be pretty hard to go from $49 million a year to zero."
Because bills assigned to his committee die if he chooses not to give them a hearing, Kenley must be won over.
He said if schools are to abide by the bill's requirement that they hold back some students and provide 90 minutes per day of intensive reading assistance, "somehow, there are some costs that have to be taken."
He said it sounded as if proponents needed to do more research.
"If they're telling me that there's so much slack in the school day today that they can do all this because of the free time they have, they need to produce the evidence that that's so."
The bill would require schools to have third-graders who fail the language arts portion of the ISTEP exam repeat the grade. It makes exceptions for students with disabilities and who are not native English speakers.
Vincent Bertram, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. superintendent, backs the bill. He urged the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday to endorse it.
But Eugene White, Indianapolis Public Schools superintendent, called it an "unfunded mandate."
At a Thursday afternoon news conference, Bennett said ensuring students' reading skills are up to par is essential, and that school leaders should shift their current resources to support the goal.
"We have funded a mandate to educate our children, and fundamental to educating our children is teaching them to read by third grade," Bennett said. "I think we can do this by focusing our local resources where they need to be focused.